New York Times Magazine dedicated its entire issue to a climate story this week, entitled “Losing Earth: the decade we almost stopped climate change”.

It is an ambitious oral history of efforts to put climate science on the political agenda in Washington DC in the 1980s, somewhat oversold as the definitive answer to why we haven’t solved climate change yet.

Critics pounced on its framing, which blamed “human nature” rather than obstruction by the fossil fuel interests and Republican Party – despite evidence of the latter in the detail. I would add: the international context is something of an afterthought, saved for chapter 11 of 11 (yes, it’s long).

Veterans, get in touch: what did Nathaniel Rich get right and wrong about the early days of climate politics? What other stories can we tell about that time? Email [email protected] or tweet @climatemegan.

Number of the week

£875 million – the amount of UK climate finance channelled through western consultancies since 2011. Read Soila Apparicio’s investigation into why five big companies receive so much of the money meant for developing countries.

US country music artist Dulcie Taylor got in touch this week to share her latest music video.

“Please don’t be confused by the title of my song, Halfway to Jesus,” she said. “It came about from hearing people call the terrible storms we’re experiencing thousand year storms. When I first heard that I thought, “Good grief, that’s halfway to Jesus.””

Next week

Look out for a meeting to be held in Katowice, Poland, the site of this year’s UN climate talks, from 8-12 August. The trade union-hosted meeting will attempt to align government climate policy with workers demands for job protection.